The rantings of a working mom of twins with a serious fiber addiction

FO’s

Well, as we know around these parts….Christmas lasts until at least late February. Luckily, I had a hair appointment with my stylist and friend, Lacey, at Frenchy’s earlier this month. I had Lacey’s Christmas gift done, so I was excited to deliver it to her. She is super into bugs and has a quite impressive collection of them. I was hoping mine could join the fold.

Loosely based on a New England Silk Moth. Kinda funny since we fiber fiends cringe at the ‘M’ word.

Back in October, at the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat, I had purchased a shawl pattern called Winona designed by the lovely Brenda Castiel. I knew as soon as I had seen the sample that I wanted to knit it for my mom for Christmas. I ordered skeins of Miss Babs in Old Gold and Field Mouse and started knitting as soon as they arrived.

My girl likes to help with the pinning.

Blocking under the tree.

Slip stitch patterns are fun!

It was a really fun knit. There is something about slip stitch patterns that makes me really happy. Like turning the heel on a sock. It just feels nice.

It certainly has been busy, busy times. The holidays are busy for all fiber artists. It’s part of the reason why my knitting group celebrates Christmas in February. It’s just more realistic for us.

Plus, ya know, there is that thing that keeps my busy most days called “my job”. Yes, there’s that.

Speaking of my job, it’s been terribly exciting lately lately… which means busy, too. I have a new cubicle and a place on a new show. I also have new work friends. I wanted to make something small for everyone, so I made little bags filled with homemade goodies and attached homemade ornaments to each one.

Ornaments for my work friends…

And Jason Funderburker got some striped socks and a new top hat!

As hard as it is to believe, I didn’t really make a lot of fibery things this Christmas. I actually tried pacing myself this year. Call it a Christmas gift to myself. 🙂

I try my best to get things done on time when I am gifting something, but I don’t always make it. Poor Juline gets my gifts late every year, but luckily, she celebrates her birthday pageant style.

Linen Stitch takes awhile.

I wanted to knit something bad, but had no real ideas in mind. I just grabbed some yarn and started knitting a linen stitch swatch, hoping it would serendipitously figure out what it wanted to be.

Linen Stitch Pouch.

It did.

An up close view. I really like these buttons.

I am also a person who has an enormous craft stash. A lot of the time I will think “What could I make to go with this?” and I run to the supplies to see what I can put together. Since I designed jewelry in a former life, I have quite the stash of jewelry supplies just sitting around that are perfect for crafty gifts.

I also dipped into the jewelry making supplies.

I also sent some amazing soap from a soap maker that sells at our local Farmer’s Market. I hope she likes it!

Thanksgiving was small this year. Just me and my husband and our kids. I invited my friend Ashley over because her husband was out of town for work and I don’t think people should be alone during the holidays.

Luckily, my husband loves me a lot and knew I was way too busy to get any actual holiday planning done, so he ordered Thanksgiving dinner this year!

Thumbs up!

Dinner was a success!

After dinner and dessert, Ashley brought out some of her knitting that needed a little TLC. Not too long ago she had a (gasp!)…moth problem, but she also had a shawl that had a burn. Of course, about the time I was going to Google “darning”, the internet took a dump. I had to wing it.

In case you couldn’t tell, I have been all about tapestry weaving lately. I think I caught the bug when working on my Iron Giant Tribute piece…now I’m hooked!

I was having problems finding instructions for specific weaving techniques online, so I started following a handful of tapestry weavers on Instagram. One of these fabulous weavers was Maryanne Moodie.

Imagine my surprise when I read one of her photo captions and found out she would be in Los Angeles teaching at Design Love Fest. I needed to take this class! So I signed up right away and immediately turned in my time off request for work.

The class started off a little shaky. They hadn’t received all of the looms in the mail and they thought they would have to refund money to about half of us (those of us that were local). Luckily, I had told them I would like to stay and watch…and at the last minute, the looms arrived! We all breathed a sigh of relief and class got underway!

The lovely Maryanne Moodie!

Warping the loom.

So coordinated! Even my mimosa matches!

Some close up detail of my practice tapestry.

I didn’t have a whole lot done by the time class was over, but I got the chance to try a bunch of techniques. I also had taken plenty of video to get me through some of those techniques if I was stuck. They helped a lot.

My completed tapestry.

It’s finally done!! I am not totally in love with it, but it was great practice. I am glad I got the chance to learn some new rules so now I can try and break them. I have some different ideas for some tapestry designs that I am really eager to try out!

Over The Garden Wall finally airing is bittersweet. People have been posting all kinds of love for the show. However, it also means things have wound down and people have gone their separate ways. It’s been the best working experience I’ve ever had. I am truly grateful to have worked with such amazing and talented people.

My trio of frogs…given as gifts to my coworkers.

People are starting to ask about the frog. Maybe it’s time I wrote a pattern?

Adrienne and I threw together crew themed costumes at the last minute. Yay, sewing skills!

On to more adventures! I have two other productions to keep me plenty busy! Maybe working on patterns might be a good lunchtime activity?

I have been MIA for quite a while. Things have been pretty exciting here… and I have been pulled in all sorts of directions. Hopefully in the next handful of blog posts I might be able to touch upon some of the things I have been working on… or maybe this will be a boatload of pic spam. I dunno. I am just just rollin’ with it.

Last month, I went to the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat to spend the weekend with Doctor Gemma and all of my other fibery friends. There was good food…good company…and I nearly got kicked out of the hotel. Yeah, it was an exciting weekend!

I spent Friday working on finishing my Kraken Cowl.

I can’t remember if I had mentioned it here before but (*nerd alert*) I modded the Kraken Cowl Pattern chart to adjust the eyes to make it more anatomically correct.

I finished it!

Ladies by the pool…

Listening to Doctor Gemma give the morning announcements.

Jamie and Tally at their booth in the vendor room.

Lunchtime tagging.

Most of the stuff I ended up buying.

Watching a fellow spinner spin luxury fibers on a charkha.

Learning how to work with cotton.

Stephie Jo showing me her awesome spindle!

It was definitely a memorable weekend, despite the craziness! I look forward to going again next year!

Have I ever mentioned how much I like small projects? I actually feel like I am accomplishing something. Good thing too since most of my knitting projects have pretty much been cast to the side for all the rest of the stuff I am trying out.

This is a special hat though. My mom had mentioned that she knew a woman through one of her scrapbooking sites who had a little girl that just had a brain tumor removed. Her name is Rori and this hat is hers.

I was sitting in our editor’s office here at work not too long ago when I got a message from Rori’s mom saying that they had just received the hat and sent me a picture of her wearing it. It totally made my day.

Funny how the internet can bring people together.

If you’re interested in this hat pattern, it is Hermione’s Cable and Eyelet Hat and you can find it here.